Unlikely
by StillThereForMe
Summary: Not even Gabriella accepted them, and she was the one they were counting on for support. So suddenly, if they wanted to survive and stay together, they now needed to learn to be like ice too. Chyan, Shaylor
1. An Unlikely Attraction

**Disclaimer:** Don't own it.

Hey everyone...about this fic--I'm not totally sure where it came from. I was reading a lot of really well-written Chyan fics lately that were, shall we say, "less than happy" and since angst is my speciality (or at least it used to be) I decided to write a less fluffy Chyan fic. It was going to be a oneshot, but then I just kept getting more and more clear ideas in my head...and well...Sharpay jumped on the bandwagon too and I have 17 pages right now (though I haven't uploaded all of them) and now I'm not sure where this fic is totally headed anymore. It may even end up going into the school year if there's enough of a following, so we'll see.

My primary motivations for writing this fic were as follows: 1) To make a Chyan fic where the relationship isn't very accepted (in part or at all) by the characters that it normally is in these types of slash fics, but keep them all still in character, 2) To try my hand at writing femslash (Shaylor) which I haven't written since my Sailor Moon days of Haruka/Michiru, 3) To make a less happy Chyan fic unlike the majority of my Chyan fics have been up until late.

Oh, and for those waiting for an update on "What Would You Have Me Do?", I'm currently working with one other author (who can be sure she'll be credited in that chapter) to help me write the really-slashy last chapter. But that won't be up until the week after next, so you'll have to sit tight and wait, but I just wanted to let you all know that it hasn't been forgotten!

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**Unlikely**

**By**: StillThereForMe

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Neither one of East High's most unlikely and unsure couple thought they would ever get along with the Evans's twins. Even before Gabriella Montez transferred during junior year, both Taylor McKessie and Chad Danforth thought they'd sooner willingly rip all of their hair out before they'd have a civil and interesting conversation with either one of the Drama Duo. Ryan was clueless, spineless, and far too flamboyant for a boy, while Sharpay was selfish, conceited, and obliviously apathetic to anything in the world not related to her. And after the Winter Musicale fiasco, when Taylor and Chad were more open-minded about different people from different cliques, the line had already be drawn between "Troyella" and Evans supporters, so they still had no reason to get to know the infamous twins. Even less than they had in common with each other, "Chaylor" had nothing to do with Ryan or Sharpay. 

Until Troy got them all summer jobs at Lava Springs, that is.

While they were both disgusted at the thought of having to _serve_ or just _work for_ their mortal enemies from the Winter Musicale auditions, both Taylor and Chad sucked it up because Troy and Gabriella both seemed to be on Cloud Nine at the thought of working together and Taylor and Chad were good friends who supported the star couple's happiness. They even pretended to be a couple too, because they knew that would be just perfect after their best friends got together. They said what couples would say to each other, went out on double dates, and even kissed each other once and a while (despite how much either one of them secretly hated it, it's what couples do), in hopes that the magic spark that seemed to flame to life whenever Troy and Gabriella were in the same room, would appear between _them_. There was no reason it shouldn't. They got along, they were good friends, they were the opposite sex, they were from similar backgrounds, and their best friends had found love between each other. It all made practical sense to Taylor, and common sense to Chad. So they went on through the day waiting for it to happen while playing boyfriend-girlfriend.

And it was all going just peachy until Troy had to screw it up.

When the Golden Wildcat couple's relationship started to hit dangerous waters and Gabriella started spending more time with Taylor in the kitchen than with her Redhawk-aspiring boyfriend, Chad and Taylor were forced to realize they didn't miss not being around only each other as lonely Gabriella moped taking boy advice from Taylor.

In the meantime, Chad started spending time with the guys and getting pissed off at his best friend constantly ditching him for the college guys and Sharpay. Taylor killed time trying to drown herself in work and add in some extra time to spy on the imperfect Sharpay-Troy potential couple. They were both worried inside to a certain degree, that if Troy and Gabriella couldn't keep a happy relationship, what did that mean for the two of them? When Taylor and Chad didn't even have the magic spark between them and no Troy and Gabriella to justify their relationship or to imitate couple-like things, they might be forced to realize that they weren't good together—and if they didn't belong with each other, neither one had any idea _who_ they would belong with.

So instead of worrying about what they'd have to do if Troy and Gabriella split up, Taylor focused on trying to save the beloved Troyella couple. Constantly spying on Sharpay (to keep an eye on what the girl was scheming of course) and warning her best friend of whenever Troy and the blonde Diva seemed to be getting a little too close. Taylor tried to convince the dark haired girl to get back in the game, and demand more time with East High's Goldenboy, but only ended up to her horror convincing Gabriella to break up with him. But even then, Taylor found herself unable to stop spying on the pink-glitter wearing girl in anger. Even if it meant Sharpay started noticing her around and treating her like a servant, asking her to do ridiculous things like get her another towel, or bring her a lemonade, even though it wasn't technically the dark-skinned girl's job to do so.

Everything about the Lava Springs Princess annoyed the proud science geek to death—worse than even the ridiculous cheerleaders! At least the cheerleaders didn't have brains to begin with, they couldn't help being idiots. But Sharpay could scheme, she could plot, she wasn't a fool she had a mind and knew how to use it. She just _chose_ not to at times! And still Taylor couldn't help but lead her group around to near wherever Sharpay happened to be lounging around in those skimpy-but-not-really glittery swimsuits (getting a tan which was really still a sunburn which could end up giving her skin cancer later in life) that day. The brainiac began to wonder if she had a masochistic impulse and just liked getting infuriated at whatever the conceited blond had decided to do that day, especially if it involved her and Troy. But then she'd brush that thought away and convince herself it was all for the good of her best friend's relationship. She was spying for Gabriella and Troy—even after the two broke up and it technically wasn't her business anymore.

Chad couldn't stand to be around the failing couple, or anyone involved in them, and so filled his free time by spending time with his teammates. Unfortunately, Zeke loved learning to bake and spent an awful lot of extra time taking extra lessons with the Lava Springs chef. Jason began hanging out with Martha and Kelsi, trying to become more of a "ladies man", which was last on Chad's list of things he wanted to do. The rest of the staff whose name's he knew, all their conversations seemed to be fixed on Troy, Gabriella, and Sharpay. Which lead to Chad spending his time with one of the last people on the planet he'd thought he'd be spending his summer with—Ryan. After "sparking" _something_ at that staff baseball game, Chad suddenly found that the male twin wasn't as clueless or different from him as he'd previously thought. Who'd of thought the Drama King could throw such a good pitch after all? And his friends seemed to tolerate the flamboyant blond as well, so Chad had no reason not to personally accept the truth himself that he was greatly enjoying the free time he spent with Ryan more than most of what he'd done so far that summer. Whether it was just playing catch, playing a small game with some of the free staff members, those ridiculous rehearsals for the Talent Show, or extra dance lessons that Ryan scheduled for him because Chad had no confidence in himself despite how well he was doing.

But most significant to the dark skinned boy was those times Ryan requested Chad as his personal caddy at very certain hours because he knew Chad didn't want to have to be on-call as a waiter to serve Sharpay or Troy and Ryan _did_ have that kind of power as an Evans. The two boys would be out on the golf course by themselves late in the evening, losing golf balls and laughing about teachers they'd both liked or disliked during the year, silly things that had happened in the kitchen or weird members of Lava Springs that gave the strangest requests for their meals or had the oddest habits. Sometimes though, they wouldn't even attempt to play golf. Chad would just vent about how much of an ass Troy was being, and Ryan would just sit next to him in the golf cart in the middle of the course and silently nod in understanding. It scared Chad somewhat when Ryan fell asleep one night leaning against his shoulder and it didn't weird the jock out at all. He actually didn't mind, and accidentally let that slip when Ryan woke up and kept continuously apologizing about doing so. When Ryan looked surprised, and then smirked suggestively at him, Chad knew he had to talk to Taylor. But he kept going out at times alone with Ryan—even after Troy and Gabriella got back together and Troy was his best friend again.

Chad was the one who found Taylor on her break, watching Sharpay lounging at the pool several days after the staff pool party, with no excuse for spying since the Troyella couple was reigning supreme again. But when he told her they had to talk and they went to a deserted room inside, Taylor was the one who quickly proposed they break up.

One thing Taylor and Chad had always had going for them was the ability to know what the other was feeling most of the time without them having to say it. Like the unspoken agreement the two had in the beginning of the summer about their determination to protect their best friends against the devious Evans twins plans, they both knew that the other had fallen for one half of that Drama Duo. They didn't need to say it, and to anyone who may have been spying on their break-up, that's all they'd know about it—it was a mutual breakup, no reasons were given because each of them already knew.

And when Ryan requested Chad to be his personal caddy that evening, the first thing Chad said once they were in the middle of the course in the tiny golf cart was that he wasn't dating Taylor anymore, and Ryan needed no more encouragement than that to lean over and hungrily press his lips against the darker boy's. And conscience-free, Chad opened in his mouth in a welcome response, pulling the lighter body onto his lap, pushing their hips together and enjoying the best make-out session he'd had in his life. It felt so much more right waging war with the other boy's tongue and running his hands up and down the paler one's sides, feeling the expensive material beneath his palms, and the warm heat of the skin under that which Chad wanted so badly to see. And he enjoyed Ryan's slim fingers running through his hair and running up under his stupid golf caddy shirt so much more than he had ever felt about Taylor's.

After the moment of passion had died down, and the two boys lied there panting and reveling in the simple pleasure of just being with each other, in that silly tiny golf cart, as cool breezes and the chirping of crickets unseen in the darkness of the evening came through the windowless vehicle.

"I'm glad," was all Ryan whispered softly into Chad's ear, that made the jock more sure than ever he had made the right decision.

And through some sort of twin telepathy, or some little bird in an unusual hat, or perhaps just through her own amazing senses, Taylor didn't even need to inform the blonde Diva the next day of the breakup. She just knew. That very morning shortly after their split, in the few moments following Taylor checking in, Sharpay showed up out of nowhere demanding that the darker girl come with her. When Taylor asked why, she got probably the last answer she'd expect.

"You've been working really hard lately, so I decided to give you a reward." The Drama Queen informed her in the most matter-of-fact fashion that almost made Taylor feel stupid…almost.

The "reward" brought the two girls to the Lava Springs spa, where immediately Taylor protested she wasn't allowed to go, before the blonde told her that she'd already been excused of her duties as Activities Director for the day by Mr. Fulton thanks to Sharpay. Strutting through the building into a private room, Sharpay instructed Taylor to lay down, face down, on the massage table.

"You bought me a massage session?" Taylor commented quickly in disbelief.

"That _is _why the table is there, Taylor." Sharpay teased. "Now lie down."

"No, I can't accept this," the straight-A student declared.

"What?" Sharpay quipped.

"It's way too expensive. I mean, thanks and everything, but there's no way I can pay you back for a whole massage…" Taylor shook her head defiantly.

"I'm not asking you to 'pay me back', just to get on the table!" The Drama Queen demanded with an expressive gesture towards the massage table.

After a few more moments of arguing, Sharpay finally let out a frustrated sigh and pulled the darker girl over and much to Taylor's surprise, kissed the girl right on the lips. The normally extremely intelligent girl was rendered speechless, mind blank, and frozen in place with her eyes wide. Sharpay smirked at the reaction and pulled away, placing a hand on her own hip.

"I was _trying_ to be romantic, McKessie." The blonde informed in a faux-annoyed voice.

"But…but, I mean Troy…and then Zeke…and…" Taylor embarrassingly stuttered nervously, and was cut off by a pale finger with a pink manicured nail touching her lips.

"You and Chad broke up, right?" Taylor simply nodded dumbly, to which Sharpay smiled (somewhat evilly since it was near-impossible for her to look any different when smiling) and removed her finger from the girl's lips, to gently run her hand down the darker girl's arm. "Then would you change your mind about lying down if I said _I _was the one giving the massage?"

"_You_?" Taylor nearly shrieked in shock.

"I am a woman of _many_ talents you know." Sharpay proudly stated, bringing her other hand to her chest in pride.

Grabbing a hold on her mind at Sharpay's conceited comment, Taylor calmed herself down a bit and remarked back with a grin "care to prove it, Miss Evans?"

Smiling widely, Sharpay simply answered "Of course."

And as the pale hands kneaded at the muscles on her back, occasionally accompanied with strawberry lipstick-laced kisses on her neck, Taylor's many doubts flew far away from her mind. She couldn't ever recall being this happy before, and especially not around East High's resident Drama Queen. She didn't wonder about the blonde's feelings about her, she didn't worry about her own, she just felt…relaxed. And wanted. And _happy_. She hadn't realized until that moment how much she wanted this from the other girl. Taylor had never felt this content around Chad.

"Enjoying yourself?" Sharpay whispered to the other girl.

"Absolutely…you're amazing Sharpay." Taylor honestly replied in a tired tone.

"I know." The Drama Queen chirped happily, stepping away as the brainiac sat up on the table.

"…could you teach me how to do that?" Taylor nervously looked up and was happily surprised to see a stunned look on the blonde's face.

But the look lasted only a second, before it turned into a suggestive smirk. "_Fabulous!_"

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Next part is where the angst starts to come in! Should be up later today (which going by what time it is where I am, would be tomorrow actually since it's almost midnight), because it's already mostly written up.

Again, please review on what you honestly think!

(And I noticed after I wrote this that the Shaylor scenes seem to have a lot more dialogue than the Chyan ones...but when I was writing it, I for some reason just couldn't summarize Taylor and Sharpay. Maybe girls just need to talk more? XD God that's such a stereotype...but considering it's Sharpay, she's pretty hard to summarize, and she's just so fun to write talking... Anyway, what I'm asking is if it seemed weird or made the chapter seem lopsided? Or did no one notice until I pointed it out? From here on out there's going to be a lot more dialogue anyway...)

Please review! And this also includes about the summary and title and chapter titles...I'm open to heavy critiques on this fic. I'm just in that sort of mood and posistion with this fic, and am encouraging it. (Also, any typos mentioned will be quickly fixed! So don't fear mentioning those either).


	2. An Unlikely Outing

Currently at my job right now, which consists of me basically acting as a security gaurd for one of the dorms from 4-8AM, so I sit and let people in if they don't live here. AKA, I've got a lot of time to type since virtually no one is walking around at this hour.

Anyway! I'm really glad to see the Shaylor couple seems to have gone over pretty well. Although I'm almost positive other people have written the couple before (this is excluding the famous "Take Me Baby or Leave Me" fic--if you haven't read it yet, go read it. There's a link IN my profile right under where I've listed my little quip on the SharpayxTaylor couple, the fic is genius and one of the first Chyan ones as well on the site!), I've never really read one (again, excluding TMBOLM), so I was really nervous about what the reaction was going to be to it. And now since I'm all conceited and happy over the reviews I've already received, I'm posting this next part! But please still do leave reviews! I'm fairly new at the Shaylor couple, and the beginning of this fic has suddenly become very focused on them. (This is what happens when I bring Sharpay into a fanfic, she totally takes control over everything...I've never written a fictional character as controlling as her before! XD She just TAKES OVER.) And I'm desperately trying to keep everyone in character, although like I said, one of my focuses in this fic is to try and give a realistic negative reaction from most of the other characters to the couple, so this isn't going to be easy...Disney characters you'd like to believe would be accepting of everyone no matter what. But I'm trying to also make them human.

And feel free to leave ideas for later chapters too! I kind of started this fic out with one idea, but it's sort of grown almost a little out of proportion, so I'm open to plot ideas if you have them! I won't garuntee I'll use them, but I only had 17 pages written up, and I'm almost already posted all of them...

Anyway, here comes the angst--and in the next chapter as well! Please forgive me for a negative portrayal (although this is more in the coming-up chapters than this one) of any normally positive character--but that was somewhat my intention in writing this fic. In other words, I warned you.

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**Unlikely**

**By:** StillThereForMe

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Neither couple had much trouble hiding their relationship. To anyone else, it was just simply a member of Lava Springs requesting a specific employee to do something for them. Even in Taylor's case, where she was being asked to just lie down by the pool next to the Diva, in place of her tagalong groupies. After all, it was anything but out of character for Miss Evans to request something as seemingly insignificant as that. Taylor was sometimes asked to move the umbrella above the blonde, or apply sunblock on her, or fetch her a water, but now Taylor did this with little complaint (other than a teasing remark that surprisingly Sharpay always let slide, which Sharpay's groupies found astonishing but were far too afraid to actually question their leader about this). And still no one was aware which club member was continuously requesting Chad's caddying abilities at 6PM at night, or why Chad never seemed upset about it. It was the absolute perfect cover in both cases. 

The catch was, neither Chad nor Taylor was actually trying to hide their relationships. Ryan and Sharpay, when politely asked by their parents or other employees about the favoritism, insisted both relationships were purely friendships (which thrilled their parents to hear, especially in Sharpay's case) and refused to go into any further detail. If their parents or Mr. Fulton found out, there was a danger of both Chad and Taylor being fired for fraternizing with the members. After all, neither Chad nor Taylor was Troy Bolton, and neither was an "honorary member". And after what happened with Troy, making them one didn't seem like that great an idea anyway.

The subject of Chad and Taylor's relationships with the twins virtually never came up in conversation around the staff. Until, of course, one day in the kitchen near the end of summer, when Mr. Fulton came in to inform Taylor that Sharpay had once again requested her presence by the pools. After Taylor said she'd be there in a few minutes once she finished scheduling her activities list for next week and Mr. Fulton left as swiftly as a waiter, Gabriella made the comment that changed everything.

"I can't believe after all that's happened, she's _still_ using us like personal servants. I'm so sorry Taylor…" Gabriella apologized with a sympathetic face to her best friend.

"What?" Taylor turned confused to the dark haired girl.

"I mean, Sharpay's probably only picking on you to get back at me, because you're my best friend. I'm sorry _you_ have to suffer for her jealousy." The Einsteinette elaborated with a sad face.

"Oh, it's no big deal." The darker girl shrugged the comment off nervously, wondering if this was the appropriate time to tell Gabriella about her and Sharpay. She had faith that her best friend would accept her; Gabriella was a really kind person after all. But even with knowing that, getting up the courage to come out to her was a lot harder for Taylor to do emotionally than mentally… feelings weren't rational numbers. "Actually, Gabriella…"

"What's she making you do? Fan her by the pool?" Her friend teased, though still looking sympathetically back at her.

"She's actually not that bad you know." Taylor tried to say as off-handedly as possible, but unfortunately the words carried far too much weight to be taken lightly.

"What!" Troy turned around from his conversation with Chad and Jason, both of whom were also looking at her. "Who just said Sharpay wasn't that bad?" The basketball captain spoke with a laugh, but his eyes were honestly widened in surprise.

"It's okay Taylor, we won't tell Mr. Fulton how you really feel." Gabriella smiled, thinking her friend was just being polite. "You're among friends."

"Yeah, we _all_ know how Sharpay can be." Troy grinned. "And I know personally being dragged around by her can be pretty bad."

"No, being with her can actually be pretty fun if you give her a chance!" Taylor snapped, before realizing what she just said and wished she could take the words back. "I mean…"

"Hey, Taylor, shouldn't you be going to meet her right now?" Chad quickly jumped in, trying to give her an out before she was forced to come out in front of the entire Lava Springs kitchen staff (all of whose attention was now directly on the poor girl). "You don't want Fulton coming back to dock your pay for the minutes you're not planning that schedule or whatever."

"Yeah! I'd better get going; Sharpay wouldn't want me to be late either…" The dark girl immediately took the opportunity and grabbed her bag, stuffing all of her papers in it as fast as she could.

"Wait! Taylor!" Gabriella reached out and clutched her friend's wrist before she could escape from the room. Taylor turned to see the Einsteinette's face now softened in worry and concern, and she couldn't bring herself to leave the dark-haired girl like that. "What is she making you do? Is she making you not say bad things about her or something?"

"Well, she's…" Taylor looked up at all the faces watching her, including Chad's, which looked like he was ready to follow whatever move she made. She looked back at Gabriella's concerned face, and made a decision. "Gabriella, can I speak with you in private for a minute?"

"Of course!" Gabriella quickly nodded and brought Taylor down one of the halls.

"I wonder what's going on with them…" Troy questioned as he watched the girls walk out of the kitchen.

"Maybe it's nothing." Chad muttered, focusing on finishing his breakfast that the guys had made earlier, and tried not to look to conspicuous.

But it didn't exactly work, because Chad was a horrible actor. "You okay Chad? You look a little sick…"

"You don't look that great yourself." Chad joked back at him, shoving his nervousness for Taylor down. "And yeah, I'm fine. Just a little tired, was up late last night you know. Caddying and stuff."

"Okay then…" Troy laughed, not totally believing but letting it go. "Whatever."

When Taylor and Gabriella were sure nobody else was within hearing distance, Gabriella asked "okay, now what's going on with you and Sharpay?"

"Nothing!" Taylor quickly replied on reflex, and then bit her lip trying to calm her nerves down. "I mean…well…"

"Taylor, you know you can tell me anything right? If Sharpay's bothering you, I might not be able to do anything about it, but I still would like to know. I'm here for you to complain to at least! I mean, she's probably taking it out on you because she's mad at me." Gabriella pleaded, guilt evident in her eyes.

"She's _really_ not bothering me, Gabriella…" Taylor tried to reassure her as she wracked her straight-A-student brain for the right words to use to come out to her best friend. Words were so much harder to work with than numbers. It was so much easier to screw them up without knowing. "She's…"

"And don't not tell me what she's doing to you because you don't want me to feel guilty! I _want_ to know. I'm sure you aren't just going off to her everyday because you like spending time with her. And I'm sure she doesn't keep requesting _you_ when she's got a hundred other people working for her _just_ because you're really close friends. What is she making you do?" The raven-haired girl continued to prod her for answers, starting to get worried at her friend's unclear responses to her questions.

"Gabriella, I _do_ like spending time with her…" Taylor started slowly, before the other girl cut her off.

"Don't lie to me Taylor! Tell me the truth, I really want to know. Please!" Gabriella pleaded, beginning to get frustrated. "You aren't fooling me you kno—"

"Gabriella!" Taylor yelled louder, finally grabbing the other's full attention and cutting off her rambling. "Listen to me, okay?" The darker girl paused, and watched her friend slowly nod with a more worried look on her face. Taylor took a deep breath, staring at her best friend's trusting brown eyes. She was once again surprised at how hard it was, and how much effort it took to actually say and pick the words. She was surprised at how much each specific word mattered. "Gabriella…I'm gay. I think I am, at least, I'm dating Sharpay. I really, really like her." Taylor watched as Gabriella's eyes widened and her jaw dropped, literally taking a staggered step back and away from her best friend, similar to how she'd react if Taylor had physically hit her. Not knowing what else to do, Taylor kept talking—almost like the other girl would run away if she didn't give her a reason to stay. Even if it was just to hear the end of her sentence. "So, Sharpay's _not_ getting payback at you through me, or using me as a servant or taking advantage of me or anything…she just likes spending time with me I think and this is just one of the ways we do it. I guess it's kind of not fair to get paid to spend time with your girlfriend, but that's really the only way—"

"Girlfriend? But…Chad…I mean, you two…" Gabriella breathed an interruption, lips barely moving to form the words as she was still in shock.

"Oh, um, we broke up a couple of weeks ago…" Taylor explained, becoming even more nervous (which she didn't realize was _possible_) than she had been before she said anything to Gabriella, since the dark haired girl wasn't reacting or saying anything that hinted whether she was okay with it or not. "We still get along and we're really good friends and everything…just, we're not interested in each other like that. Oh! And I'm not interested in you like that either…just as really good friends, like we were before. It's only Sharpay…I just like the way she makes me feel…I don't really know how else to explain it…"

An uncomfortable silence passed between them, as Gabriella continued to stare at Taylor in disbelief, and Taylor looked around the room, finding her friend's eyes too frightening to continue to look back at. She wished she could think of some other words to say. That way, if she was still talking, she wouldn't be able to notice how similar Gabriella eyes looked to when the two girls had rented all those horror movies at their sleepover with Kelsi and Martha a few months ago. And her honors student mind wouldn't be able to link that fact to the theory that if Gabriella's eyes looked like that, it suggested she was horrified at what Taylor had just told her. She really hated having a mind that was almost never blank.

Then the tension was broken by a very familiar voice shouting her name.

"Taylor! What's taking so long!? I asked Fulton to get you almost half an hour ago!"

"Oh! That's Sharpay. I guess I'd better go then." Taylor quickly muttered and was about to walk away, when Gabriella's face suddenly changed to one of realization—as if the blonde's shouted words had suddenly just woke her up to the simple solution of some big mystery. The same expression she always got when everything clicked in her mind midway through solving a problem at the scholastic decathlon. The look that everyone knew meant East High was definitely about to win this round. Although Taylor had no idea what had just hit her friend now to cause that face since they definitely weren't in a academic competition at the moment, and because of that confusion, the dark girl was frozen in mid-step, staring at her friend."…Gabriella?"

"That bitch…" Gabriella accused softly with a distant look in her eyes.

"Gabriella?" Taylor repeated confused, and walked over to her friend to see what was wrong. But she was ignored as the singing honors student suddenly flew past her, stormed out of the room, and rushed down the hall towards the kitchen before the darker girl could even blink. "Gabriella!"

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I always love it when people review saying a favorite line or prediction for upcoming chapters, but any other comments are welcome too! I'm still not so confident in writing the Shaylor couple, so any reviews are welcomed with tears of joy and relief! 

Please tell me if you don't think someone's in character (although again, I'm working on making Disney characters realistically imperfect), or if I'm ignoring a different character. I try to include everybody. And typos, if you mention them, I WILL fix them. And like I said earlier, plot ideas for this fic are welcomed and encouraged, though they won't all be listened to. And probably won't really be used until several chapters later. But, I'm going to be sitting here a while, so who knows when that will be.

So please review! The major angst begins next. A Gabriella-Sharpay confrontation (which is very weird for me to write since I'm so used to Ryan-Troy confrontations...I wonder if that actually makes me less creative that I'm bringing that in...? XD I don't know...), and Chad comes out as well. But to a bigger group of people.

Thanks for all the reviews and alerts and favorites and C2 Community adds! Please continue to do so!


	3. An Unlikely Confrontation

Okay, took a little longer than I thought, and Sharpay and Gabriella's confrontation ended up being longer than I'd originally thought, so the main focus here is mostly Gabriella and Taylor's issues, while only the very beginnings of Chad.

But anyway, thanks so much for all the reviews and favorites so far! Please continue to review and tell me what you think!

Oh yes, and as a little warning, Gabriella may seem like she's going a little psycho in this chapter, but I promise she has a legitimate reason behind the why she's reacting the way she's reacting. But this isn't going to be our sugary-sweet Gabriella Montez. Don't forget that I warned about the negative reactions in the beginning of the fic!

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**Unlikely**

**By:** StillThereForMe

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Taylor was rushing down the same direction her friend had taken when she heard Gabriella shouting angrier than Taylor could ever remember hearing her. And thinking back, she didn't _ever_ remember the calm girl shouting before. Speaking firmly, in a hard tone, in a low voice yes, but Gabriella Montez to her knowledge _never_ yelled or shouted. And Taylor didn't like the sound at all. It was frightening.

"How could you Sharpay? I mean, you've done some _awful_ things before, but this just isn't right!" The smaller, tanner girl stood directly in front of the very confused, very surprised blonde, with her twin brother and Mr. Fulton right behind her in similar states of shock.

"_What_ are you _talking_ about?" Sharpay demanded insulted and slightly scared (though she'd never admit it) of the dark-haired girl's out-of-the-blue rage.

"Miss Montez! This is unacceptable behavior! What has gotten into you?" sputtered a very surprised Mr. Fulton. "You do _not_ speak to club members that way! And you _especially_ do not speak that way to the daughter of the club's _owner_!"

"How could you!? How could you stoop that low!?" Gabriella cried, completely ignoring her boss and literally on the verge of tears. Her voice was almost squeaking with the force of her trying to keep her volume loud and sound steady, despite the closeness of the other girl and the enormity of what she was feeling. "I _never_ thought you'd act that horribly—never enough to do _this_!"

"Gabriella what's going on?" Troy rushed over and placed a hand on his near-hysterical girlfriend's shoulder.

"What's wrong with you!" Sharpay snapped back, demanding to know why she was being so rudely yelled at when she didn't even remember doing anything worthy of being reprimanded since the last time she'd seen her ex-rival. She'd been on her _best_ behavior as of late! "I have no idea what you're even talking about!"

"Wrong with _me!_ What's wrong with you!" Gabriella countered, not seeming to even think before she was speaking, almost ready to launch herself at the diva had Troy not been holding her shoulder and she not so sure that Sharpay could easily beat her. "How could you make Taylor say that, you sicko!"

Finally realizing where her friend was going with this, Taylor hurried the rest of the way over to the two people most close to her and tried to intervene before things got out of hand. Rushing to the side of the small girl opposite where Troy stood, Taylor placed a hopefully reassuring hand on her best friend's arm to try and calm her down and explain. "Gabriella, wait! She didn't make me say anything. I _meant_ to say that!"

"How could you make Taylor say she was gay!" The hysterical girl continued, her volume rising, as did the shock and the attention of everyone else in the room at her words.

"You did what!" Troy snapped his head up to stare at the blonde girl in shock and disgust.

"Oh no." Ryan let out; finally catching on to what everyone was talking about.

"What's the problem—you couldn't break up me and Troy so you decided to break up Taylor and Chad instead? Is that it Sharpay? You can't be happy unless someone else is miserable!" Gabriella continued with her rampage, becoming stronger and more angrily confident as she observed Sharpay and Ryan both slightly pale in the face at her words, oblivious—as was everyone else—to Chad's and Taylor's doing the same.

"Sharpay…how could you make her say that…?" Zeke asked softly, the Drama Queen's probably biggest fan even seeming to be disappointed and shocked in her.

"That's just not right." Jason stated aloud, pointing out what he felt was obvious as always.

"That's just going too far." Martha muttered to Kelsi who was standing next to her, the much shorter girl rigorously nodding in agreement. "Even by Sharpay's standards."

"How _dare_ you accuse Miss Evans of such a scandal! I could take away your job for this you know, Miss Montez!" Mr. Fulton swiftly threatened when his shock and near heart-attack had passed from an employee being so blatantly disrespectful to one of the club's well-known biggest patrons. His face was turning beet-red in shame and anger as he spat his words at the young female lifeguard. "I _demand_ that you apologize to Miss Evans immediately, young lady, and then speedily get to work on writing an expressive and heartfelt letter of regret for your vulgar and uncalled-for words! After that, I'll _consider_ reinstating your job with at most _half_ your current pay at _Miss Evans's_ discretion!"

"Mr. Fulton, please leave." Sharpay requested in a low, serious voice.

"Eh—Excuse me?" The older man with high blood pressure almost shook as he turned to the female twin who had always been rather rude and power-wielding to him in confusion.

"Mr. Fulton, please leave. And you didn't hear anything that was just said by anyone in this room. Do you understand?" Sharpay repeated and elaborated her words to the older man, pronouncing each syllable carefully and clearly while her face was incredibly calm. "Forget what just happened, you never heard Miss Montez say_ anything_, and her pay and job will remain as is. Am I clear?"

"Uh, um of course Miss Evans." Mr. Fulton answered, a slightly perplexed expression on his face, and politely wiped his brow with his handkerchief in a nervous gesture. But he nonetheless gave a short nod of his head and walked out of the kitchen, closing the door behind him with a gentlemanly yet somewhat inappropriately timed "goodnight," to everyone in the room.

"What's wrong Sharpay? Don't want your servants and parents to know what disgusting schemes you're up to this time?" Gabriella's voice sounded broken and her face was red from anger and tears rolling down her cheeks, and her voice sounded a bit hoarse after the older man left and she'd calmed very slightly. But her anger was once again filling up in her as she stared at the girl who'd been the source of most of her problems since she had arrived in Albuquerque. "Could it be you're feeling guilt over what you did, or are you just saving your own hide?"

"No! I just don't want to risk Taylor and Chad losing their jobs!" Sharpay shot back in a harsh whisper, anger evident now that Mr. Fulton had left. "Excuse _me_ for not wanting _them_ to get in trouble for what _you're_ shouting for all to hear!"

"Chad?" Troy repeated in confusion and surprise at the unexpected name.

"Oh, you hadn't said anything yet?" Sharpay stared accusingly at Chad, crossing her arms while Ryan's face was unreadable, his eyes were aimed at the darker boy.

"No, it's not like that. Taylor just went off to talk to Gabriella alone before." Chad explained quickly.

"What is she talking about Chad?" Troy asked slowly, turning to his best friend as if he were a stranger.

"I'm gay too." Chad was surprised at how simply the words fell from his mouth, and how much lighter he felt after he said them.

"What?" Jason snapped, stepping away from the darker boy.

"Right," Troy forced a good-natured laugh. "And what, Sharpay's forcing you to say you're dating Ryan too?"

"She's not forcing me to say anything, but I am." Chad tried to laugh as he said his words, hoping they'd be less heavy if he did, but they weren't.

"You're joking, right?" Zeke smiled at his basketball buddy.

"No, I'm not."

"Stop it!" Gabriella yelled, hands going up in a gesture that looked almost as if she was going to pull the ends of her hair out, before lowering them turning back to shout at Sharpay. "What do you have on them? What are you blackmailing them with Sharpay? Because this is just sick, okay! We're not playing this twisted game of yours anymore, understand? So just stop it! It's sick—wrong—messed up—ugh! It's just _not_ right, okay!"

"Gabriella, Sharpay's really not making them say anything." Ryan chimed in softly, hoping a different voice would calm the girl down a bit.

"Don't tell me you're in on this too Ryan—I thought you were the nice twin!" Gabriella whined in disappointment. "I thought you weren't going to go along with her schemes anymore! I thought we were friends."

"We are friends!" Ryan protested earnestly, before trying to correct her again. "And there aren't any schemes."

"And just because he's gay doesn't mean he's not a nice guy." Chad added in, moving over towards the main group in the center since Zeke and Jason had backed off from him.

"Don't call him that!" Gabriella yelled at her boyfriend's best friend.

"I am gay." Ryan pointed out the fact that he thought was probably the second most obvious thing about him after the fact that he had white skin (since his hair color was always somewhat hidden underneath a hat).

"No! You can't be! I thought you were such a sweet guy!" The Einsteinette weakly argued, acting almost as if Ryan had just told her he'd killed someone.

"Yes, he is. Just like Chad and your best friend, gay and sweet." Sharpay snapped rudely to which Ryan gave her an exasperated look, telepathically informing her that she was _not_ helping the situation at all by saying that—a look that the insulted and angry Sharpay promptly ignored. "It's not exactly impossible you know."

It was that last comment that made Gabriella truly snap. She looked up and gave Sharpay the most hateful glare her face had ever produced, took two steps forward, and slapped the blonde diva right across the face.

The shock of what the Einsteinette had uncharacteristically just done caused the normally quick-to-retaliate Drama Queen to freeze completely still for a moment, and slowly turn her head to face forward, eyes wide and mouth dropped in shock. Gabriella, having still not moved from her spot that was well within arm's length of the blonde, stared unapologetically right back at her. Sharpay's mouth moved as if to speak, but no words or voice came. Instead, her eyes narrowed and teeth grit as she suddenly swung her own arm to slap the other girl back—except with her pink manicured nails, she also ended up leaving two or three scratch marks on Gabriella's tanned cheek as well, one of which ended up slightly bleeding.

Everyone else could only stare, though in the back of their minds, they all probably knew what was inevitably going to come. Gabriella slowly brought the tips of her fingers to her cheek, and pulled them away to see the very thin line of blood brought by the blonde's perfectly manicured nails. She slowly looked up at the proudly smirking Drama Queen in front of her.

A blink later, the two girls were rolling around on the floor, kicking and scratching and cursing at each other.

The first people to react out of the shocked trance everyone had been under since Gabriella had hit the Ice Princess were Taylor and Ryan, who both dove to try and pull Gabriella and Sharpay, respectively, apart.

While both girls were separated rather reluctantly—both separators getting quite a few scratches and curses thrown their way in the process—they thankfully didn't struggle too much to try to free themselves and launch at the other again.

Once Ryan felt it was safe enough to put Sharpay down on the floor, the first thing the Drama Queen did was complain "ugh! I think she scratched my _face!_"

But when Gabriella looked up to see who had pulled her out of the fight, she shrieked "ah! Let GO of me you _dyke_!"

Taylor immediately jumped away from the girl she called her best friend as if she'd been physically burned. Gabriella, meanwhile, brought her arms up to either side of her head, curling almost into a ball to the point where it was near impossible to tell if she was crying, resisting the urge to pull her hair out, or holding her head in pain. She started making gasping noises that echoed what one might hear before a person falls into a panic attack.

Those noises were what signaled Martha and Kelsi to quickly snap out of their trances and rush to help the dark haired girl up. Seemingly drained of her energy and wobbly on her feet, the two girls helped her walk by placing either one of her arms over their shoulders. They spoke softly to her, saying they would go outside and get some fresh air so she could calm down, to which the Einsteinette could only nod quickly in response. Jason rushed ahead of them to help open doors and get out of the room himself—which the majority of the kitchen staff followed, taking this as the intermission to a show most did _not_ want to be around to see the end of. But before she walked through the door, Kelsi shot an accusing, dirty look back at the Drama Queen before exiting the room with Gabriella.

* * *

I swear there's a real reason Gabriella's reacting that way. She's not just being over-dramatic. And if you don't think she was being that way, well, than that makes me happy. But if she seemed over the top, there is a reason you'll find out later.

But I said they'd be facing mostly (if not all) rejection.

Anyway, please review while I finish up the very end of the next chapter! I really want to know what you're thinking!!


	4. Unlikely Choices

Just as much as I like torturing Troy, I think I love making Ryan and Troy fight. I have no idea why, but that seems to be a speciality of mine.

XD It's only 6 PM, but I've been up for about 24 hours at the least right now, so I'm sort of falling asleep, so this might be my last post for today...I'll try and get the next chapter up too, but I can't make any promises...

Thanks for all the reviews so far! I really really appriciate them, and will probably respond to most of them tommarow.

* * *

**Unlikely**

**By: **StillThereForMe

* * *

"Okay, she did _not_ just glare at _me_!" Sharpay commented angrily once the majority of the room had emptied. "I didn't do _anything _wrong this time! It's not my fault that girl's homophobic. Or maybe I should say _homo-psycho_."

"I think I'm going to get some fresh air too." Zeke informed in a monotone voice, before following the direction that his other friends had taken out of the kitchen.

"That wasn't funny Sharpay." Taylor reprimanded her girlfriend seriously after Zeke had left.

"Plus you did do something; you got into a fight with Gabriella." Ryan corrected the other girl, inspecting his arm which was red from the catfight crossfire.

"With everything she was saying, she had it coming! Besides, _she _hit me first." Sharpay declared, pulling over her purse that had been dropped in the squabble, to bring out her hand mirror to check the damage to her face. She pouted at what she saw in her reflection—though no one else looking at it would be able to figure out what she was pouting at. "That whole facial I had this morning was totally wasted…I'm going to have to get another one later."

"Is your arm okay?" Chad questioned, walking over and pulling Ryan's forearm in question closer to his own eyes to see.

"Sharpay, put the mirror away, your face is fine." Taylor instructed plainly, pulling the compact out of the girl's hand. "And we have bigger problems to deal with right now!"

"Are you sure there isn't a bruise or something next to my eye? It didn't look quite right…" Sharpay questioned reaching for the compact again.

"It's all in your imagination." Taylor told her, bringing the tiny mirror out of the blonde's reach by standing up. "You can't even tell you were in a fight. And like I said, we have more important things to worry about."

"Aside from hurting and changing color, yeah, I think I'm fine." Ryan smiled at his scrawniness and Chad's concern for him despite being ditched by his teammates. They were probably going to have to talk about this later too…Ryan hated talking…then again; Chad had stayed in the room right? Maybe they didn't have to say anything. The two hadn't really spoken about anything relationship-wise yet, and Ryan really didn't want to have to start. "…unless you see something I don't?"

"Huh?" Chad glanced up in confusion to look at the other boy's blue eyes.

"You're still holding my arm." The paler boy smiled suggestively.

"Maybe I just like touching you." Chad leaned in closer, grinning and trying to drown all of his doubts about everything that had just happened in thoughts about Ryan.

"…so you really are doing…this…because you want to?" An unmistakable voice muttered from the one other person who had not fled the room when everyone else had.

"Troy?" Chad turned around in surprise. "I didn't realize you were still here…"

"_Why_, are you still here?" Taylor looked over suspiciously, still hurting on the inside from Gabriella's words and wanting nothing more than to leave the building as quickly as possible and discuss what had just happened. She felt like if she could explain it, she could figure out what to do, but she couldn't do that while talking to Troy who just made her think about Gabriella. "Everybody else left. Why didn't you?"

"Yeah, it's _your_ girlfriend gasping out a lung outside. In case you forgot." Sharpay reminded as she stood.

"Sharpay!" Taylor snapped at the blonde, causing her girlfriend to flinch in surprise and a flicker of guilt run across her eyes. But the guilt was quickly hidden behind a huff and crossed arms. Taylor turned back to Troy and demanded "well! Troy?"

But Troy hadn't heard a word either of the girls had said. He was still gawking, his gaze traveling back and forth between Ryan and Chad, his face becoming more and more confused with each minute. Finally, his eyes settled on Chad's face.

"You're dating…" Troy's sight traveled to look Ryan up and down, expression changed to some disgusted confusion. "…another…_guy_…" He quickly looked back to Chad. "…by _choice_?"

Chad nodded, testing his friend's reaction. "Yeah…"

Ryan stepped forward with a cold confidence, and waved his hand to get Troy's attention. "Hi! My name is Ryan Evans. How are you?" He extended his hand with a fake smile, and retracted it when Troy just looked at him, more confused. "My name's _not_ 'another guy', and by the way—what gender you date has nothing to do with choice for your information. It's not something you can control."

"Right!" Chad nodded, remembering vaguely that he should've answered Troy's last question that way.

But again, Troy didn't really seem to hear the blond boy—or if he did, he decided to not care. His attention was focused on his best friend since preschool. "Chad, you know this could screw up your chances at a scholarship. And the basketball team! Oh god, when my dad finds out, he might kick you off!"

"I didn't exactly _plan_ on coming out to Coach…" Chad shrugged. "Although I didn't exactly _plan_ any of this coming out stuff today…"

"Well, we're going to have to tell him!" The basketball star threw his hands out to either side of him, his voice getting stronger and more impassioned.

"And _why_ would Chad's basketball coach need to know about Chad's sex life?" Sharpay demanded, placing a hand on her hip.

"Uh, the locker room! The showers! Blocking in games and fouls and everything! He's going to be in contact with other guys!" Troy's voice rose, his hand brushing back his hair nervously as he seemed to get more and more stressed as he spoke. "The whole basketball team is probably going to have to know! Maybe even the league…"

"HELLO!" Ryan suddenly shouted, stepping forward and almost seemed to be blocking Chad from Troy's line of view. The hatted boy's eyebrows were furrowed in anger, and his voice was projecting as loud and clear as if he were on stage. "Do I _look_ like I'm on the basketball team?" His gestures were expressive and he pronounced every word clearly to East High's Goldenboy's face. "No! So Chad's _not_ going to be looking at 'other guys' while he's playing your stupid sport! So, I _assure _you, that you and your basketball buddies' sexualities have absolutely nothing to fear by being within two feet of Chad!"

Troy gave Ryan a hard stare, before side-stepping him and getting a more clear view of Chad Danforth. "All's I'm saying, Chad, is that are you really sure this is worth it? With everything you've got to lose? I mean, you saw how everyone reacted to you guys here, it's not going to be much better once we're back at school and everybody knows."

"Who said anything about everyone at school knowing?" Taylor quickly interrogated, and was quickly ignored.

"Are you sure you want to risk all of that, for_ this_?" The brown haired boy slightly gestured with his shoulder to Ryan. "I mean, which is really more important?"

Throughout the entire exchange with Troy, Ryan's hands had been balled into fists from holding back his anger at his boyfriend's best friend, and his nails were digging into the palms of his hands. He felt the edge of his nail break the skin, and had finally had enough. "Okay, first of all, in case you forgot, I have a name, it's Ryan." The blond boy pushed Troy back slightly, forcing the taller boy to see him standing there. "And second, I'm not sure I want to be around for this conversation. OH! But WAIT a minute, _my_ parents just so happen to _own_ this building, so you get out."

"What?" Troy asked incredulously.

"**Leave**. _Now, _Bolton." Ryan demanded, with the most serious look on his face and tone in his voice anyone in the room had ever known him to use.

Troy just stared at the lean boy for a moment, then heavily sighed, and ran his hands through his hair nervously. "Fine, I really need to think anyway." With those as his parting words, the East High Wildcat turned and walked out the door, slamming it behind him.

"Ryan!" Chad yelled the second the door slam reached his ears. "How could you talk to him like that? Troy's my best friend!"

"Then how can you _let_ him talk like that!" Ryan shouted back at the darker boy. "I didn't want to hear him say anything more, especially not right in front of me and I don't think _you _did either! At least I'd hope not! What he was saying…it was wrong, it was…" The Drama King trailed off, grabbing one of his upper arms with his opposite hand, and looking away towards the floor. He didn't know how to phrase how he felt, because he didn't _like_ doing it.

Similarly, Chad's eyes turned downcast as he got lost in thoughts and feelings he'd rather not concentrate on, but had no distraction for.

"So…what do we do now?" Taylor asked generally, fiddling around with Sharpay's compact in a futile attempt to focus on something else.

"Well, I don't feel like going to the pool anymore." Sharpay shrugged her unpleasant thoughts off as she'd be training herself for years to do—though it was considerably more difficult to a point this time, because not all the feelings and thoughts were about her. Nonetheless, she did it, and took the reins to steer the attention of the group. "What do you say we go back to my nice air-conditioned suite for ice cream and movies today? I'm feeling lazy…"

"Ice cream?" Taylor repeated in disbelief. "After everything that just happened, you want to go back watch movies and eat ice cream?"

"Well, it's too warm out for hot cocoa! And I'm not in the mood for popcorn, so let's go!" Sharpay stated matter-of-factly, as she swung her purse over her shoulder and grabbed Taylor's hand. "Come on boys, you're coming too!"

"We are?" Chad questioned unenthusiastically.

"Actually…" Ryan commented softly with a small smile. "Pigging out and watching movies sounds like an _awesome_ way to spend the rest of the day…"

And Chad had to internally agree that watching movies would probably be a much more pleasant afternoon activity than working around snobby wealthy people and currently judgmental friends.

"Don't worry about your jobs, I'll call Fulton once we get back to my room and take care of it." Sharpay told Chad from over her shoulder.

"…okay then." Chad nodded, ready zone out in front of a big screen and think about _nothing_.

* * *

I LOVED the reaction I got to Gabriella's and Sharpay's catfight! I was worried about it, but everyone seemed to enjoy it. And no one seemed too freaked out by Gabriella's reaction to Taylor (and some people even started guessing _why_, which is my favorite type of review to get, when people predict ahead).

So thanks for all the reviews so far! I'm sorry this chapter's shorter than the others, but I wanted to get it up before I fell asleep (which I am as I'm typing this...yes, I may end up going to bed at 7PM...but i'm really tired.

Anyway, please don't forget to review! I love getting them!


	5. Unlikely Decisions: Shaylor

Hey everyone! I'm really shocked at how well this fic has taken off...but I'm really happy about it too!

So, here's the next part. Again, it was going to be longer, but I figured I'd split the "Decisions" chapters in two (Shaylor and Chyan) since having them in the same one would be pretty long and they are pretty important. Plus, this way we get the update earlier.

We're skipping the actual movie-watching and ice-cream eating though...sorry to the few who were looking forward to that. ;D But I said this wasn't going to be a fluffy fic.

Oh yes...and I was debating on whether or not to mention this here...but Gabbi's reaction isn't because of a latent or former crush on either of the two girls...(although to be honest, I didn't even think of that as a reason when I was writing...which has now given me an idea for another fic so look out for a Gabpay or Tayella oneshot from me in the future maybe) thanks to everyone who predicted though! I really do love getting those kinds of reviews, although I love all kinds (especially ones that mention favorite lines)! I just wanted to say that anyway, since I don't think her reason for reacting the way she did will be coming up soon. Definately not in this or the next chapter.

Anyway, onto the Shaylor-centered chapter! (Since Sharpay does love the spotlight and is really stealing it in this fic..)

* * *

**Unlikely**

**By**: StillThereForMe

* * *

Hours later, after about 8 movies, several different small cartons of ice cream, phone calls home asking to spend the night, Taylor laid down in one of Sharpay's old purple silk pajamas on her soft, giant bedspread. She had not planned on draining her mind that afternoon watching movie after movie. She had planned on going over every detail of the disaster that was that morning, and figuring out precisely where she went wrong, and what she could do to fix it. But the brainiac had to admit, Sharpay's way of dealing with the problem was a lot more fun and enjoyable. And it was getting harder and harder for her to say "no" to the selfish diva. Sharpay was definitely an intelligent girl, because she knew just what buttons to press to get Taylor to do what she wanted. Like touching her arm and kissing her cheek to get the brainy girl to watch _The Music Man_. Taylor must've looked ridiculous caving into the blonde's pouty face every time after every movie when Taylor tried to get her to talk about what happened instead of picking out another film to watch. Now if only the Drama Queen could use those powers for something more productive. 

Like getting those horrible words out of her head.

_""__Let GO of me you _dyke_""_

Taylor rolled over onto her side on the bedspread with a sigh. She could watch a thousand movies and eat 5 tons of ice cream and she was never going to forget those words that came out of her best friend's mouth. Gabriella had been the first real good friend Taylor had in a long while…although she'd never mentioned it to their group, before Gabriella, Taylor had been something of a loner. She had been in the brainiac clique, sure, but she hadn't gone out or had real birthday parties or sleepovers or anything since she was seven. She didn't have anyone to sit and really talk with at lunch, though she had a reserved place at the brainiac table. She'd never really thought friends that big a deal, figuring that friend drama and fights and stuff never seem to do anything but distract and stress people out. Initially, she had only wanted Gabriella to help them win the Scholastic Decathlon. But then the girl had been so nice and so friendly to her, and they had so much fun together, life had just been so much brighter and happier having a best friend. And then with Gabriella, she'd made friends with Chad, Troy, Martha, Kelsi, Zeke, Jason, people she'd never thought she'd see outside of school except for maybe their 25th reunion. And most of all, it was thanks to Gabriella, that Taylor had been having the best summer she'd had in ages (even with all the silly 'friend drama' and fights in the beginning), just being around people she liked. And then…she got together with Sharpay. That was thanks to Gabriella too. The one person on Earth who Taylor discovered could make her feel amazing, beautiful, and wonderful; the best that she could ever remember feeling before.

But now she had to choose between the beginning or the end? Either way, she knew everything would unravel.

"If I asked you what you were thinking right now, would I be able to understand your answer?"

Taylor smiled at the question and rolled over to see the Drama Queen in a lacy, rhinestone glittered pink babydoll nightgown. She had her head rested on her hands, cocked to the side and was studying the dark girl on the other side of the bed.

"I'm not even sure I understand what I'm thinking." Taylor smiled sadly, rolling onto her stomach to get a better view of the gorgeous girl in the room with her.

"That's because you read too much." Sharpay informed her with a haughty smirk.

"Yes, because that makes so much sense, Sharpay." Taylor laughed lightly, turning her head to rest it on her arms. "No, I think it's because I'm tired."

"It does so make sense! If you didn't put so much in your head, you'd always remember what you were thinking about." The blonde argued defensively, and Taylor just chuckled with a nod to appease the other girl. The darker girl then felt the bed shift, and knew that the other had moved. "Now, come over here and put your head on my lap."

"What?" Taylor quickly glanced up and saw the Drama Queen kneeling more towards the center of the bed, patting her thigh. "Why?"

Sharpay simply rolled her eyes in explanation. "Just do it!"

"Okay…" Taylor moved cautiously, watching the blonde for any signs of sneakiness or tricks. Of course, she didn't think that the girl would hurt her or anything…but the spontaneous actress did have a love of doing things that would inevitably surprise and embarrass the darker girl no matter how nice or good it felt.

Sharpay rolled her eyes once more at her girlfriend's cautiousness. "Don't worry, I'm not gonna do anything…"

"Sure…" Taylor argued with a smile, before lying her head down on the lighter girl's lap anyway.

"You should trust me more…" Sharpay pouted dramatically as she gently brushed some of Taylor's bangs away from her eyes.

"Define 'trust'." Taylor smirked as she looked up at the blonde's face, bringing her own hand to brush the skin on the lower part of Sharpay's arm. "You scheme so much, I can't help being cautious around you no matter how much I like you." She noticed then her girlfriend staring at her with a more serious look in her brown eyes. "What?"

"I wish you'd let me give you a makeover." The Drama Queen played with strands of Taylor's short dark hair. "You're so pretty…with a little makeup you'd look drop dead gorgeous, I _know_ it."

Taylor's eyes widened, and sat up (much to the Drama Queen's surprise and confusion) and turned to stare at the blonde disbelievingly. "…you think I'm pretty?"

Sharpay glared and crossed her arms, but still smiling slightly. "Now I know you did _not _just insult my taste in women!"

Taylor laughed lightly, glancing down and bringing her hand behind her neck. "Well…it's just no one's really called me that before except my mom. Not even Chad."

"Well, Chad's not exactly the best person to go to for what's attractive in a woman, now is he?" Sharpay teased, lying down and resting her head on one of her overly-fluffy pillows, motioning the other girl to do the same. "I'd like to think I have much better taste in that department."

"I guess that's true." Taylor laughed a bit more openly, lying down facing the Drama Queen. Then, much to Taylor's surprise, the blonde suddenly looked pensive, even biting her lip deep in thought. Suddenly concerned, Taylor reached out and placed a comforting hand on her pale arm. "Shar…you okay?"

Brown eyes looked up at her, more vulnerable than Taylor could ever remember seeing them. "It's just…if you want to tell Gabriella and the others that I made you say you were gay…you can."

"What?" The darker girl removed her hand quickly and stared confused at the blonde.

"You know…" Sharpay turned onto her back and looked at the canopy hanging above her bed. "It's not like they're all that fond of me anyway. They all thought that I made you say it. So if you tell them that they were right, they'd probably be nice to you again. I mean, I don't want you to have any problems working around them and going to school and everything."

"Sharpay…" Taylor answered, touched and slightly suspicious. "That sounds like something _Ryan_ would say."

"Okay!" Sharpay exclaimed, crossing her arms and turning back to face Taylor, face pouting and resembling and sounding a very angry little girl in a toy store. "Fine! It was his idea. I _don't _want you to tell them that! I don't want to be a secret girlfriend! It'd suck and be so annoying having to hide everything! Just because _they_ can't deal with it! I hate the idea! It's so stupid! But I know it's probably the right thing to do…Ryan convinced me it was anyway. But I don't want to have to give you up for _Gabriella!_ It's not fair!" Taylor was once again shocked that near the end of her theatrical monologue, the blonde's face had grown red and Taylor would swear she was on the verge of tears and trying to hide it.

"Such a drama queen…" Taylor shook her head, gaining Sharpay's attention. The darker girl pulled the lighter one into her arms. "Always such a selfish drama queen…" Sharpay looked up about to protest before Taylor pushed the blonde's head back against her chest so she could continue. "I don't want to tell them that either. Hiding would be stupid. Someone would find out eventually. And…I want to have a little more faith in my friends than that. Let them get used to it and maybe they'll come around." Taylor explained as she tried to convince herself of the same.

"And what if they don't?" Sharpay asked, unmoving.

"…I don't know."

"And when school starts? I won't be able to fire them or anything if they act like assholes then."

"You were going to fire them?"

"Why not? Even if my mom approved them, I just mention what happened in the kitchen using the right wording and poof! Their jobs are gone. If they act like jerks, what's wrong with it?"

Taylor glanced down at the scheming blonde girl. "Because firing them just because they're being mean to me isn't exactly fair…"

Sharpay looked up challengingly. "Neither is them being homophobic."

Taylor laughed shortly, and looked away, pulling the girl closer to her. "Let's just see how things go first before you fire anyone."

"Fine…" The Drama Queen heavily sighed. She stared at the purple material covering her girlfriend's chest and decided to change the subject. "I like the way you look in my pajamas…"

"Such a pervert." Taylor playfully swatted the back of the girl's head.

"Hey! _You're_ the one in my bed in my clothes."

"_Goodnight_ Sharpay…" Taylor chuckled, getting more comfortable against the pillow.

"Goodnight." The Drama Queen snuggled up closer to the dark girl, closed her eyes and fell asleep—not forgetting or mentioning that her girlfriend hadn't answered her last question.

* * *

Can you tell more angst is coming up? 

XD I really do see Sharpay as a little kid sometimes...she acts like it enough...but we all love her anyway.

Chyan chapter next!

Please review as I get to work on it...


	6. Unlikely Decisions: Chyan

I have a field trip in 6 hours and I really need to get some sleep, but I really wanted to post this too so I got it done!

I was a little dissapointed at the lack of reviews on the last chapter (at least compared to the one before it), but I'm chalking that up to school starting again and it was fairly short and was technically a part 1 of a full chapter. So please review this one? Although I do appriciate all the alerts and favoriting, because that does show an interest.

But, on the bright side, I was informed today by kellykalls that someone nominated this fic for best Shaylor story for the HSM slash awards (as has "My Best Friend's Secret" for best Chyan)! So I'm really thrilled about that and thanks so much you guys who voted for it! Of course, now that it's nominated, I really need you guys to review so I can keep up the quality of the fic...because now if I wasn't already nervous enough about writing my Shaylor scenes, I certainly am now! So I need feedback.

But, even though this was nominated for the Shaylor category, this is the Chyan-focus chapter! And it gets much more physical because the boys don't like thinking or talking, especially Chad. So, if you think the rating should be upped, I'll do it, but I think it's still T-rated. But if you think differently, don't be afraid to tell me.

On with the slashyness!

* * *

**Unlikely**

**By**: StillThereForMe

* * *

Sharpay had a spare bedroom in her suite. That was the resounding shock for Chad that evening. He stood still walking around the giant "extra" room that was bigger than his own at home, in a pair of one of Ryan's spare blue pajama pants (which made Chad grin at the implication that alone made), which were a little tight but more than worth wearing. He had showtunes stuck in his head which he refused to let himself hum from being forced to watch all those musical movies (he hadn't been aware that many EXISTED until tonight), several of which he enjoyed more than he'd ever actually let Ryan know. 

The blond boy had left the room before to let Chad change (not that he really would have minded Ryan watching him…) and to talk to his sister about something apparently, though Chad didn't get the real details about what. And as wonderful as the basketball player was at avoiding thinking (he liked to think himself an expert in the activity and had perfected it over the years), standing alone in a big fancy room after watching 8 hours of fairly non-violent movies was forcing his mind to go on autopilot. With nothing else to distract his thoughts, he began to go over the chaotic events of the summer.

It seemed all the forces in the universe were doing the best they could to tear up him and Troy. The two had used to be inseparable before this year, with Gabriella coming into the picture, then the musicals, then the summer jobs where Troy got special treatment thanks to Sharpay and started acting like a jerk to the rest of them. And now, just when he thought things were cool between him and Troy again, this happens. Although to be honest, Chad wasn't that sure what "this" was.

_""Are you sure you want to risk all of that, for_ this_? I mean, which is really more important?""_

…which again brought him back to the fact that he hated thinking—it was just so much easier to decide things based on feeling and instinct! Which Troy knew damn well about Chad, and so Chad hated his friend at that moment for forcing him to think. The basketball team was extremely important to Chad, and so was his future, college, and his friends as school. But he was making some of the best summer memories he'd ever had this summer thanks to "this". He didn't like thinking, but he liked those nights on the golf courses with Ryan. Even now just thinking about it, he was grinning. Ryan's skin was so pale, sometimes at night it looked like it was glowing, reflecting off the moon or lights or something Chad wasn't sure, but he never failed to tease the lighter boy about it. Being with the blond just felt so damn right, and Chad didn't care what anyone else thought about it…

…except Troy.

Troy had been his friend since what felt like forever. And no matter what anyone had said to him throughout the years, teasing or criticizing or reprimanding or whatever, none of it mattered unless Troy said it did. So he didn't give a crap about what Jason or Zeke or Coach Bolton or any of the other guys thought about what he was doing with Ryan. He might care later when school started, when he had to walk through the halls with them or something, but Chad didn't plan ahead so right at this moment he enjoyed what he did with Ryan far more than he was worrying about what _might_ happen. That was how he normally felt about most decisions he made, weighing worry about later with the thrill of the _now_. So long as Troy approved, because Troy was the captain and Chad always followed him with the strongest loyalty you could ask for in a friend.

But now, Chad couldn't figure out how his best friend felt about everything. First off, he really didn't understand what everyone was getting freaked out about. Gabriella's reaction to Taylor had totally floored him to the point he didn't even realize what was happening until his boyfriend was pulling his sister off the other girl. He knew some people were totally disgusted with the thought of homosexuality, but to tell the truth despite his actions, Chad had never really thought about it either. He just knew what he liked, and he _liked_ what Ryan did to him and made him feel. He didn't really think of it in terms of being "gay", until he was backing up Taylor earlier that day—when he actually first said the word. And he didn't really get worried about it until Troy had acted so strangely. After all, it wouldn't be the first time Jason and Zeke had gotten weirded out by something, and considering Sharpay was involved, Chad _really_ wasn't that stressed out about them. Not until Troy.

Troy hadn't freaked out like Gabriella, but in some way, Chad almost wished he did. Troy didn't act disgusted with him, he didn't reject him, he didn't damn him to hell or attack him like Chad had heard some people do when their friends "came out" (and had now witnessed it first hand). Troy didn't even call him a fag or a queer or anything. No, Troy instead just went about warning him about all the bad things that could happen—like when Chad procrastinated on his homework or ate too much junk food. Chad suddenly chuckled and brought his hands to his face, realizing he'd just compared his boyfriend to a cheeseburger.

Then he felt the arms of his favorite distraction from thinking wrap around his partially bare waist, and whisper in his ear "you know, you look kind of crazy just standing there laughing."

"I'm just not good at thinking," Chad laughed a little as an explanation, and turned around to catch the suddenly surprised blond boy in an unexpected but very deep kiss. He then took advantage of Ryan's state of shock to push them both onto the fairly large (though not quite as big as the one in Sharpay's room) bed and began happily unbuttoning the front of his boyfriend's green pajama shirt, kissing the pale skin as it was revealed to him. "Luckily, this doesn't take much thought…"

"Chad…!" Ryan started but was quickly cut off by Chad's lips once again taking control of his mouth. He groaned when Chad moved to completely cover him and had almost completely undone his silk shirt. As tempting as having a thoughtless session with his half-naked, energetic boyfriend on top of him on his bed was, Ryan knew they were going to have to talk eventually and Chad was just procrastinating. They had to focus on the problem at hand and clear up some things before they gave into their raging hormones for the night. Although it was hard to concentrate when Chad was nibbling on his ear… "Chad—Chad! We have to talk first."

And suddenly, the big haired jock's energy seemed to zap out of him with a heavy sigh, as he collapsed (though as gently as collapsing onto a person can be) and rested his head in the crook of Ryan's neck, making his voice sound slightly muffled. "I was afraid you were going to say that…"

"Me too…" Ryan mumbled to himself, dreading this conversation probably as much as Chad was. "Now, first, please get off me so I can talk…" The darker boy grinned slyly and simply wrapped his arms tightly around Ryan's body and rolled over, so now the blond was just as close but now on top. "…that doesn't help."

"I know," Chad answered still grinning. It was then Ryan's turn to sigh with a shake of his head, and rest his face in his boyfriend's neck. Figuring it was time to stop fooling around, Chad let out a breath and gently took off his boyfriend's hat (yes, Ryan Evans apparently had a green hat to specifically match his pajamas) and brushed a dark hand through the blond hair, a sad smile on his face. "Okay, you can start talking now…I'm listening."

Finding it easier to speak without looking at Chad's face, Ryan moved his head over to lay it on Chad's chest, his cheek feeling cold compared to his boyfriend's warm dark skin. "…well, first of all…I'm sorry for jumping down Troy's throat before. I shouldn't have done that."

"Ryan, you don't have to—"

"Yes I do!" The Drama King protested, closing his eyes but otherwise not moving an inch. "I didn't even give you a chance to defend yourself to Troy. I just yelled and scared him off because I was pissed, I didn't let you say anything and who knows? Maybe you would've been able to convince him to think differently. But I didn't let you try…so I'm sorry."

"Ryan…to be honest, I don't know what I was going to tell him anyway." Chad admitted a bit guiltily, rubbing his hand up and down the side of Ryan's arm as he remembered the pleading look Troy had in his eyes when he was trying to convince Chad to break it off with Ryan. "So, I was sort of glad you stepped in…"

"I was afraid you were going to say that." Ryan never stood a chance against Troy Bolton. No matter who was judging, who was deciding, if Troy was an option he was always the one picked. The Drama King felt a flare of jealous and anger at East High's Goldenboy that he never measured up to, clenching a fist and defiantly holding onto the dark boy under him more tightly. "Chad…if you could've answered, what would you have said—about Troy's question I mean."

"You mean, the 'which is more important one?'" Chad asked for clarification, though not really needing it and just stalling for time.

"Yeah."

It would be so easy for Chad to choose Ryan. But Chad couldn't help but feel that might also be because the other option—the popularity, the basketball team, the scholarships, the school—he didn't need to worry about because it was still summer. As of right now, the only thing he cared about was Ryan out of all of those—but would he feel the same way come September? When he was walking through the halls knowing he didn't have basketball practice that afternoon because the coach kicked him off? He couldn't imagine himself in that situation…it was too much thinking.

"Actually, never mind. I don't want to know…" Ryan suddenly exclaimed. He looked up at Chad, who was staring at the ceiling, eyebrows furrowed and lips pursed in concentration. "My sister said…if you want to…you can tell them that she made you say you were gay."

Chad immediately looked down at Ryan's rather solemn face (though it looked like he was trying to keep it neutral). "You want me to tell them she made me say it?" Chad asked disbelievingly at the pale boy.

"Well, I don't want you getting screwed over by your friends just because we got out." Ryan tried to shrug nonchalantly.

"And then what are they going to do to you?" Chad suddenly spat angrily, flipping the boys over again so he was on top staring down at Ryan. "If I tell them that, then what do you think Jason and Zeke and Troy and the rest of the team would do to you?"

"What do you think they're going to do to _you_ once September rolls around? When we don't have Lava Springs security a phone call away!?" Ryan shot back with a tremor of fear in his voice—for himself and for Chad. "Do you have any idea what gay guys go through in _high school_? The way other guys treat them—especially in things like _sports_ and _gym class_?" Ryan stared at Chad, trying to emphasize the reality of the situation and knowing how much losing those things was going to mean to Chad once the school year started up again. "It's not easy to get numb to all that…it takes a while."

The look in Ryan's eyes shocked Chad with the realization that Ryan was probably speaking from experience. But instead of feeling scared and worried about himself in the future, he suddenly just felt pity and sadness for what the other boy must have gone through, and some anger at himself for never noticing that earlier. So he responded more for reassuring Ryan than honestly answering himself.

"At least I wouldn't be going through it alone…" Were the first words that came to the jock's mind, probably taken from some musical movie he had watched earlier but it seemed appropriate now.

Ryan just shook his head. Chad didn't understand, he didn't know, and Ryan couldn't figure out how to _make_ him see the big picture.

"You're not going to feel that way during September…" Ryan tried to reassure, but was slightly taken aback when Chad leaned in closer to him.

"I know, which is why I don't want to think about that right now." He pecked Ryan's lips before continuing. "We've still got a week or two left of summer, and for right now my choice is you. You're what's most important right now. I'd rather have fun and enjoy these last couple of days and then worry about September in September. Who knows what will happen before then, right? I know what I feel right now, and that's what I'd rather think about."

"'No day but today'?" Ryan smiled ironically and half-heartedly, quoting one of the many movies they had watched earlier.

"Exactly." Chad grinned in recognition, going in for a much more deeper kiss.

"We're still going to have to talk about it again later then." Ryan reminded between more and more intense kisses as Chad was pushing the blond's pajama shirt off his body and onto the floor.

"But at least then we'll have a few more days under our belt, right?" Chad smirked as he physically demonstrated the meaning of 'under the belt' on the blond with his hand.

Ryan gasped and decided to nod and let the conversation drop for now. He at least had the satisfaction of Chad saying he wasn't going to lie about them, and Ryan was what was most important to him right now, which the Drama King could selfishly take as two strikes over Troy. He wasn't going to push for any more from Chad now…he just hoped to whatever deity would listen that he didn't have to lose the boy once classes started up again. It was getting harder and harder to deal with the thought of breaking up and not being around him. Ryan was getting attached.

Just like Sharpay had said to him earlier when he was trying to convince her to give Taylor an out. His sister didn't want to, because it was already extremely difficult to deal with the thought of losing Taylor to Gabriella. Both of the twins knew they'd fallen, and they could only selfishly hope their respective counterparts had fallen for them too—enough to be willing to take on all of East High to stay with them.

* * *

And that's the end of part 2 of the "Unlikely Decisions" arc. 

After this, we're going to be getting back to dealing with their friends (because as fun as it would be, they can't stay hiding in Sharpay's suite eating ice cream and watching movies forever...they're going to have to go back to work sometime).

And also, the plot for the story now makes sense! Or at least, I hope it does because it should definately by this chapter.

Angst starts to kick up a notch in the next chapter!

So, please review! I really would like feedback. And pointing out of favorite lines or mistakes that I will fix if I'm told about. Thank you!


	7. Unlikely Enemies and Allies

Okay, I meant to update "My Best Friend's Secret" next...but this story has just become so addicting to write and I had a certain reader requesting I update this next, and since these chapters are actually generally shorter than those for MBFS, I'm updating this next. I have half of the next chapter for MBFS ready, but I'm sort of behind in my classes right now (it'd be so much easier if I didn't need to sleep...I'd get so much more done) so I may not have the next update for a good couple of days.

Anyway, again, I'm shocked. I thought people would think the RENT quote would be corny or clichee (since all HSM fans seem to be RENT fans too...), but I liked it so I kept it in. But again, I'm wrong, since everyone seemed to love it. So I may stick in a couple more quotes in upcoming chapters (not all from RENT though...and there aren't any in this chapter because too much was happening and there wasn't really any appropriate place for one). We'll see.

Surprisingly, our favorite twins don't actually make an appearance in this chapter! I meant to get a bit further, but I had already hit over 2000 words, so I cut off at a bit of an evil cliffhanger...forgive me! Lots of drama throughout though. Keep in mind though, that the Disney characters here have a bit of a dark side in this story...trying to keep them somewhat realistic. Hopefully they don't seem too overdramatic.

* * *

**Unlikely**

**By:** StillThereForMe

* * *

Chad sighed heavily to try and rid himself of his nerves as he opened the door to the kitchen, Taylor silent but just as nervous behind him. They had walked over to the main building of Lava Springs together from Sharpay's suite, after a very large breakfast and Taylor convinced the Evans twins (and Chad) that they'd be fine working today but would definitely call if there were any major problems. The two of them had yet to run into anybody (although they did pass Gabriella by the pool who refused to look in their direction), and now that they would, neither one of them was very confident about it. 

As the door opened, it creaked extremely loud in Chad and Taylor's ears, and when they walked through they felt half the eyes in the kitchen turn to look at them, while the other half looked in the opposite direction or focused heavily on their work. Any ongoing conversations before they entered were quickly silenced.

"Good morning to you all too." Chad muttered, stuffing his hands in his pockets, while Taylor just frowned at all of them. Neither one of the two were offered any breakfast as all employees normally were before the day started (so they were both grateful they'd eaten at Sharpay's suite). They crossed the silent kitchen towards the check-in machine, but were blocked by Jason standing in their way. "Jason, move."

"What was that, fag?" The dark haired boy spat back at Chad's face.

"I'm not playing this game, Jason. Just move, please." Chad attempted to go around his former teammate, only to be pushed back (and nearly falling onto Taylor) by Jason's surprising strength. "Dude, I need to check in! I'll get docked for being late!"

"I would've thought since you didn't show up to work with all of us yesterday, you'd quit." Jason sneered, crossing his arms and generally looking as tough as he could. "It would've been the smarter thing to do, _queer_."

"Wait—_you're_ trying to talk to _me_, about being smart?" Chad laughed dryly, starting already to have had enough of the insults.

"Chad, don't start," Taylor warned, placing a hand on her ex-boyfriend's shoulder to try and calm him down.

"What's the matter assfucker? Suddenly not man enough to take a couple insults?" Jason continued to antagonize Chad, a smirk pulling on either side of his mouth as the darker boy tried to restrain himself from biting back. "Need to go run off and cry to your little boyfriend?"

"Hey leave Ryan out of this!" Chad quickly snapped, much to Taylor's chagrin knowing now this is where the focus of Jason's insults were going to turn.

"Chad, calm down. Jason, can't you just get over yourself and let us pass?" Taylor demanded starting to try and go around the other basketball player. "We have to work too, you know."

"Where do you think you're going lesbo!" Jason grabbed Taylor by the arm and threw her on the floor.

"Ouch!" Taylor grabbed her arm and hissed in pain. "What the hell do you think you're doing, Jason!"

"Taylor, are you alright?" Chad questioned quickly, and then glanced around the room to see some people not paying attention at all still, and others still just watching the scene and making no move to do anything about it. He turned back to Jason, and saw his former teammate staring down very superiorly at the two of them with a wide grin, and Chad just lost it. "You asshole!"

Chad sprung up and pushed his ex-friend against a wall. Holding him there, Chad began to punch the dark haired boy in the stomach. Again. Again. And again.

"You-don't-throw-girls-asshole!" Chad grunted with each hit, and Jason only coughed for air in response.

"Chad! Stop it!" Taylor shrieked at the darker boy's sudden bout of violence, knowing nothing good could come from it.

"What the hell do you think you're doing faggot!"

That was all Chad heard before he felt a sudden sharp pain in the side of his head, and then he was on the ground staring at someone's old white sneakers. He quickly shut his eyes when he then felt the same sharp pain hit him again, only this time in his stomach. Chad had to bite his tongue to stop the bitter fluids that travelled up his throat from spilling out onto the floor. When he felt the pain in his back, he brought his arms up to cover his head—just in case. Strangely, he didn't feel sad, or scared, or angry, or anything. He felt...numb. Like he was going through the motions, and just waiting for it to end. And _that_ scared him much more than the kicking.

"What are you doing!? Stop kicking him! You could really hurt him!" Taylor cried worried, stunned that _no one_ was going to help Chad. She pushed herself up with her bad arm, ignored the pain that shot up her arm and went to grab the back of Zeke's arms to try and stop him from beating Chad. "You could break some of his bones! Or paralyze him! Stop kicking him!"

But her pleas were completely ignored. "Just because you like touching boys now doesn't mean you can go all over the first one you see homo!" Zeke spat bitterly and continued to kick whatever spot on Chad's body his eyes hit first. "Jason's not interested."

"Oh give me a break!" Taylor shouted incredulously, and tried to move around Zeke and get to Chad. "That's not what he was doing and you know it! Now stop it!"

"Stay out of it bitch!" Zeke turned and snapped at the girl, hitting her so hard she fell back again. "Go fuck your girlfriend and mind your own business!"

The room spun for Taylor and she gripped her head very similar to how Chad was, trying to ease the pain. Through her dizziness though, she could hear Chad's grunts and knew more of Chad's basketball teammates were joining Jason and Zeke. It scared her, how quick all the boys had seemed to turn on Chad—or at least had jumped on the bandwagon with the others who had flipped, and were too scared to go against them. It reminded the brainiac heavily of one of the chapters of her Sociology textbook last year: Mob Mentality. And if this kept going the way it was, Chad could be in real trouble.

And no one in the entire kitchen except her seemed to give a damn.

"Stop it!" Taylor shouted, trying to stand and grimacing at how defeated her voice sounded already.

"What the fuck is going on here?"

Even through their pains and aches in their heads and elsewhere, both Taylor and Chad recognized that shockingly unexpected voice. Everyone in the entire kitchen did, and immediately stilled their actions at the sound of it. They all turned to the person whose body that voice came from, and saw a very surprised and pissed Troy Bolton standing at the entrance of the kitchen.

"What the hell do you guys think you're doing?" Troy continued now that all attention was on him.

"…uh, what does it look like Troy? We're teaching the queer a lesson." Jason who always pointed out the obvious answered plainly; gesturing to Chad's curled up form on the floor.

"Yeah, he tried to rape Jason! He was all over him, had him pinned against the wall even! We weren't just going to sit by for that…" Zeke tried to elaborate, but trailed off when Troy's piercing and emotional blue eyes turned to glare angrily at him.

"Yeah, like I'm going to believe that shit! No matter what Chad's done or doing, he's still _my_ best friend, and he's still _your_ teammate until if and when my dad says different! He's the same guy he was last week, which means I really doubt he's going around groping and raping people, especially Jason." Jason looked like he was about to protest Troy's words, but quickly thought better of it when Troy's glare landed on him. "So get the hell away from him, right now." Troy demanded, and the team swiftly followed their captain's orders.

Troy walked obliviously past Taylor's pained form on the floor and right up to his best friend who stared confusedly up at him. Troy could feel all eyes in the kitchen still aimed at him, and bit his lip before he reached down and offered Chad a hand up. Chad quickly glanced at Taylor before taking it and pushing off the ground. Unfortunately, the kicks had made him somewhat unbalanced and Chad staggered a bit before collapsing somewhat into his friend. A sharp intake of breath went about the room at the obvious implications Chad's fall had (the boy himself glanced up horrified and embarrassed at what he had just done), before Troy quickly shot a glare at anyone who dared to make a move. He looked very uncomfortably down at Chad, but helped his friend to stand steady on his own two feet without pushing him away.

"You okay?" Troy questioned softly, though his face appeared rather apathetic about it.

" Yeah…" Chad nodded before gripping his head again with one hand at the pain the movement had caused. "Thanks Troy." The darker boy added softly and almost embarrassedly.

"Don't mention it." The lighter boy replied about as equally uncomfortable about it.

"What is going on here? I expect much more movement and activity to be going on at _this_ hour of the morning!" Mr. Fulton chose this moment to make his appearance, disgusted at the lack of work his teenaged summer employees had accomplished so far. "Come on people! You are _not_ being paid to stare at Bolton and Danforth doing…whatever it is they are doing. Not that it matters. Unless you all want to be docked for all this time you've spent lazing about in here instead of doing your jobs, I suggest you get to work—now!" Activity immediately resumed in the kitchen as the teenagers rushed to do what was required of them to get their paycheck and pretended to have not been doing anything else at all that morning. However, Chad, Troy, and Taylor, who had all been a bit preoccupied at that moment moved slightly slower, and thus all ended up jumping when Mr. Fulton continued his loud speech in their direction. "Danforth! Come with me, I have some special instructions for you. Bolton and McKessie, get up and get to your stations to start your day right after you check in which I have a feeling you've both yet to do."

As per instructions, Taylor and Troy both quickly checked in with their cards without so much as a glance in the other's direction. Chad, however, shakily turned and followed Mr. Fulton out into the hallway, dreading what he was sure would be a criticism for being some sort of distraction, but faintly hoped would be some last minute message from Ryan (though he highly doubted this since Ryan hadn't mentioned one that morning).

"Mr. Fulton, I'm sorry for not getting right to work this morning…" Chad started to apologize but was cut off by his boss raised his hand up in annoyance.

"Danforth, I believe I said _I_ had some instructions for _you_, which means that I will do the talking and you will remain silent unless I ask you a direct question, understand?" Mr. Fulton peered at him over the rims of his small glasses.

"Um…yes?" The basketball player answered hesitantly.

A small, stressed sigh escaped the older man's mouth, and his eyes rolled slightly before he continued. "First off, Danforth, are you alright?"

This caught the boy off guard. "What?"

"Do you need to see the Lava Spring's physician—er, I mean, to say—_doctor_?" Mr. Fulton corrected, assuming the former word would be outside the teenaged boy's limited vocabulary.

"…um…no, I think I'll be fine…plus, I mean, I already took yesterday off…" Chad's words were again cut off by the annoyed hand.

"That's all I needed to hear, Mr. Danforth. Now, if you run into any more trouble under my employment," Mr. Fulton reached into his pocket and pulled out a notepad and pencil, and jotted something down. He then tore the small paper off and handed it to Chad. "Please do not hesitate to call this number for assistance. I will have the problem swiftly dealt with so that you can continue to do your job without unnecessary interference. Of course, if any incidents occur outside Lava Springs but with Lava Springs employees, don't hesitate to call because I will also do what I can to take care of it to the extent of my powers, as the incidents will also probably affect your performance as one of my employees. You may also give this number to Miss McKessie as well, who is also welcome to use it when she deems necessary."

Mr. Fulton began to walk away before Chad broke out of his shock long enough to call "wait! Mr. Fulton!" The older man spun around on his foot, still formally standing straight. "…did Ryan or Sharpay tell you do to this?"

"I'm sure I have no idea why either of the Evans twins would wish me to do this for you and Miss McKessie." Mr. Fulton responded vaguely, before seeing the pleading look in Chad's eyes, and caving slightly, voice becoming surprisingly (but not very) warmer than usual. "No, no one in the Evans family instructed me to give you and Miss McKessie that number. I just understand that it can be difficult working at a job in a place such as this with a…condition…that your coworkers might be less than amiable towards you for. I simply wanted to assist in making that experience somewhat less…painful…for the two of you." Fulton's voice quickly then became colder again and back to how it normally was. "So I don't want any excuses from you or Miss McKessie about performing just as well at your jobs as you have been doing the entire summer."

The words sunk into Chad, causing him to smile as he understood what the older man was implying about himself behind his words.

"Thanks…Mr. Fulton. This means a lot." Chad answered warmly, which obviously made the older man somewhat uncomfortable and unsure how to react.

"Don't thank me Danforth…" Mr. Fulton's eyes darted around the hallway, before he straightened himself up and replied formally "just make sure your work gets done."

"Will do, Mr. Fulton." Chad nodded ginning, and resisted the urge to hug the older man in simple _relief _for having help now, as he headed down the hall.

Feeling more confident than he had in the past two days, Chad turned back to the kitchen to check in and get set to work a full day—with more energy than he had all summer. He was about to reenter the kitchen doors when all of a sudden he was pulled down to another corridor and into an abandoned room. He was spun around and when stopped, came face-to-face with his (ex-?) best friend Troy Bolton.

"We need to talk. _Without_ Ryan this time." Troy explained, arm resting on the wall behind Chad, preventing him from being able to leave the room.

* * *

Troy torture, although wasn't too bad this chapter. This shocks me. But chances are the next chapter...well, you'll see. 

Love reviews. Hopefully nobody hates me for Ryan and Sharpay's abscence in this chapter...but they did just have two chapters devoted to each of them before...

Also wanted to ask since someone already brought this up to me--should the rating be raised? I'm considering doing it, because these past two chapters especially I've been sort of wishing I had the rating at "M", but I'm not entirely sure. So, I'm asking you all, so if you could give me your opinion, I'd appriciate it.

Please review!


	8. An Unlikely Position

Really late, but then I really wanted to write this chapter while the scene was still clear in my head! Unfortunately, it's still a rather Chyan-focused chapter, but that's Troy's fault. The next chapter will be much much more Shaylor centric, and you'll see why at the end of this chapter.

Kellykall's Slash awards are finished with nomination and are voting now, so don't forget to vote:) There's a bunch of great fics nominated.

Hopefully, this chapter will clear up Troy's posistion in this story...

* * *

**Unlikely**

**By: **StillThereForMe

* * *

"We need to talk. _Without_ Ryan this time." Troy explained, arm resting on the wall behind Chad, preventing him from being able to leave the room.

"What…?" Chad blinked confused at what had just happened.

Troy let out a breath, stepped away from Chad and looked out the doorway. After looking both up and down the hall, he swiftly shut and locked the door before turning back to Chad with a deadly serious look on his face.

"We have to talk about this whole 'gay' thing." Troy elaborated staring his friend right in the eye as he walked back over to him.

Not wanting to discuss this topic at _all_, much less with the person who had just saved his ass several minutes ago, Chad quickly tried to excuse himself by walking around Troy and muttering "I still have to check in for today, I don't want to lose—"

But Troy grabbed the darker boy's arm and pushed him right back up against the wall and returned his arm to its place against the wall and next to Chad's head.

"No. I already checked you in, so don't worry about it. I'll take the heat from Fulton if we get in trouble. But we have to talk, _now_." The basketball captain was glaring at him, which was scaring Chad into immobility.

"I don't get it. Talk about what?" Chad feigned confusion, wanting more and more with each second for this talk to be over. He had a really bad feeling about it. And he was terrified that by the end of it, he'd lose Troy as a friend—and he wasn't sure he'd be able to handle losing his best friend. Troy had always been there for him, and even when he was being an ass earlier this summer, Chad never thought for a second that Troy would cut ties with him. Act like a jerk and take advantage of, yes, but the thought of _losing_ him never once entered Chad's mind. Troy was his captain, his best friend, his brother, the one he depended on all the time and looked up to more than anyone else—what was he supposed to do without him? "…what do you mean 'gay thing'?"

"Don't play stupid with me Chad, okay? I'm _not _in the mood for it." Troy quickly spat at him, and Chad wanted to sink in to the floor.

"Sorry…" He mumbled, staring at the ground because he couldn't handle Troy's eyes.

Apparently realizing he was scaring his friend, Troy let out a guilty sigh and shook his head with his eyes closed for a moment. "Look…Chad, I'm sorry." Chad quickly looked up at his best friend in surprise. "I don't mean to come down on you like this…it's just…I'm worried about you, okay? I just don't want to see you screw up your life."

"Screw up my life?" Chad repeated confused and slightly insulted.

Troy lifted his hand from the wall and brushed them nervously through his hair. "Look, I don't blame you for looking at guys like that, okay? I mean, we're teenagers, our hormones are going nuts; I'm sure pretty much every guy has had those feelings at one time or another. Even those assholes out there I'm sure have thought those kinds of things before." Troy gestured angrily at the door. He looked back at his friend seriously in the eye again. "The difference is _acting_ on them Chad."

"But—!" Chad was about to protest until the look in Troy's eye once again silenced him.

"Okay, now I know I acted like something of a jerk yesterday, but to be fair you acted the same way when I auditioned for the musical." Troy challenged.

"…true." Chad couldn't argue with that.

"So, for the rest of the day after that I thought a lot about everything that happened. I'm not going to jump down your throat because you want to try something new, this whole gay thing you're doing. If you want to try that sort of stuff with guys, fine, I'm not going to judge you. I've got nothing against gay people."

Chad smiled in relief "thanks man, that really—"

"But you _cannot_ do it with Ryan." Troy interrupted his best friend.

"…_what?_" Chad nearly choked on his response in shock.

"Look, I know, he's really hot and the clothes he wears don't exactly make him that easy to ignore, but however tempting he is, dude, you can't be gay with him." Troy quickly explained awkwardly, and continued before Chad could question his choice of words. "Listen, okay: he can be as flamboyant and openly queer as he wants, that's fine for him. He'll still be perfectly successful, the school's already got him pegged like that, and Broadway loves gay people. _But the NBA doesn't!_ I mean Chad, think about it. You and Ryan don't really have a lot in common. I mean, you want to try being gay, pick someone on the team or even a freaking nerd so you can say he's tutoring you or some crap like that, but _not_ Ryan Evans! Everyone knows Ryan is gay, they see you hanging around with him when you're not even part of the shows—what do you think people are going to think? At least if you pick some other jock you guys could pass for friends and they'll keep their mouth shut about it! I mean, god, dude I'll do it with you—just don't hang yourself by doing it with Ryan! I don't want to see you screwing yourself over by being gay with Ryan. The school will turn against you, you'll lose all the scholarships you could be getting…dude it's not worth it."

Chad stared back at his friend's eyes, and he knew Troy well enough to recognize when his friend was being truly sincere—and he was. And Troy's words _did_ make sense. He was just confirming all those doubts Chad hadn't wanted to think about yesterday. But…Troy seemed to be missing the main point.

"Troy…" Chad started off slowly, looking up at his friend who seemed eager to hear his response. "I mean, I get what you're saying and everything, but…it's not like I can just stop liking Ryan. It'd be like you—"

"It'd be like me trying to stop liking Gabriella. I know, Chad, believe me I get it." Troy finished for him. "But like I said, there's a difference between having those feelings and _acting_ on them! I'm not asking you to stop liking him, I'm saying just act out those feelings on some other guy who won't kill your future!"

"But…" Chad looked at the floor again, not wanting to disagree with his best friend and confused himself now.

There was a sudden loud, and annoyed, rapping at the door of the room. Then the noisy sound of a key being inserted and turned in a lock, and the door swung open.

"Bolton! Danforth! You are _not_ being paid to have private conversations in locked rooms! You have jobs to do, which you should already be doing _right now!_" Mr. Fulton angrily stated. "Danforth, you have been personally requested to caddy today."

"Okay then, let's go Chad." Troy turned to his friend, obviously intending to finish their conversation on the job.

"_Just_ Mr. Danforth has been requested, Bolton." Fulton quickly and professionally corrected the teenager. "You and Jason have kitchen duty today."

"Chad's caddying by himself?" The basketball captain checked for confirmation suspiciously.

"Yes." Mr. Fulton nodded, and threw Troy his apron.

Catching the cloth, Troy turned and looked darkly suspicious at his best friend, while still addressing Mr. Fulton. "Who requested him?"

"_That_ is none of your concern, Mr. Bolton." The older man quickly ushered him out of the room, but not before Troy shot Chad a clear 'we'll finish this conversation later' look. "Jason is in desperate need of your help seeing as the boy drops every other plate he picks up, so I'd appreciate it if you would hurry and make sure at least half the plates used today don't have to be replaced." Once the other boy was already out of the room, Fulton turned back to Chad, who was looking remorsefully at the ground. "Are you alright, Mr. Danforth?"

"Yeah, thanks Mr. Fulton. I'll be fine." Chad nodded, though his soft voice didn't support his words.

"In that case, Mr. Evans is waiting for you on the golf course. He says you're welcome to work with him for the entire day if you so choose. He also stated he's more than willing to pay you for your services, as well as have lunch with him instead of with the rest of the staff."

"Thanks Mr. Fulton." Chad nodded again, and trudged down to the lockers to change into his caddy outfit.

He hadn't even made it halfway down the hall when he nearly ran into his very concerned and very worried boyfriend.

"Oh my god, Chad, are you okay? Mr. Fulton said there was an incident and when you didn't come right away after I requested you…" Ryan quickly looked his boyfriend's body over and just as quickly noticed the bruises on his arms and the defeated look on Chad's face. "Where did you get these…what happened? Are you all right?"

"Ryan, Ryan I'm fine." Chad quickly removed Ryan's hands from his body, not wanting to have any displays of public affection after the morning he'd just had. "I didn't know about your caddy request until a few minutes ago, I was talking to Troy…"

"Did Troy do all of this to you?" The blond boy asked quickly and angrily, making a gesture towards Chad's obviously pained body and sneaker marks on his uniform.

"No! Troy _stopped_ all this, this morning!" Chad snapped at the paler boy in front of him, then immediately regretted it when he saw the hurt look on Ryan's face. Feeling incredibly guilty, Chad sighed heavily and went to apologize "Ryan, look, I'm sorry…"

"No, no, I was doing it again. I'm sorry for suspecting Troy first thing again." Ryan's light and sad blue eyes quickly found the floor more interesting than his boyfriend in front of him. "I'll try to stop doing that. But…Troy helped you out? Does that mean he's okay with…well, us?"

Not wanting to go through his least favorite conversation again, Chad simply answered "Troy said he doesn't have a problem with gay people."

Ryan's eyes lit up at the other boy's words, and a smile grew on his face as he looked up at Chad. "That's great then! Isn't it? I mean, he's your best friend right? I mean, especially after how he reacted yesterday. I guess you were right, and he just needed some time to calm down…"

"Yeah. It's great." Chad snapped again, wanting to change the subject badly.

Assuming he'd said something wrong again, Ryan quickly backtracked. "What I mean is, if Troy's okay with it, maybe he'd be able to convince all the other guys to be okay with it too. Not that the other guys being assholes…"

"Ryan!" Chad quickly cut the other boy off. "Can we _please_ talk about anything else?"

"How about talking about how _wonderful_ the pool is going to feel today! I'm thinking I might actually even go in, this time." Sharpay announced, entering in a rhinestone covered pink robe and bathing suit with oversized rose-tinted sunglasses. "What do you boys say to a day lounging by the pool?"

"The pool? Where Gabriella is _lifeguard_? Sharpay, are you kidding?" Taylor immediately protested, coming up from behind the blonde.

"So don't drown. Then she won't have to save you or look at you." Sharpay countered simply. "Or, I'll just get her replaced with someone else if you want. I mean, there's got to be other pools she can watch. Or how about I just fire her altogether!" Sharpay added in the last sentence a little too excitedly for Taylor's taste.

"Sharpay." Taylor just stared at the blonde girl seriously, to which the Drama Queen just exaggeratedly pouted. "Firing her won't completely solve our problems."

"Fine." Sharpay crossed her arms. "But I still want to go to the pool. So boys, you want to come too?"

"Sorry, but I'm caddying." Chad quickly explained.

"But…you're caddying for Ryan, right?" Sharpay pulled down her sunglasses to look at Chad over them.

"Yeah…"

"So! Then you can come hang out with us at the pool for now, and then we'll all go golfing later!" Sharpay cheered.

"Is he allowed to just hang out by the pool until we go golfing?" Taylor double-checked.

Sharpay turned and smiled (again, somewhat evily). "If we say he can. We'll just pretend _you_ planned our member activities, and Chad will just carry Ryan's golf bag or something when we go golfing. That way you're both technically still working."

"But…I can't really golf…" Taylor mumbled softly.

The Drama Queen's eyebrows rose, and her smile grew in reaction to Taylor's answer. "Fabulous!"

"How is that 'fabulous'!?" Taylor demanded, thinking she was being insulted.

"Because…" Sharpay slowly moved closer to the other girl until she was whispering in her ear. "That means I get to teach you!" Sharpay's hand trailed down the darker girl's arm, leaving goosebumps on the bare skin.

"Oh…" Taylor blushed and Chad smiled at her embarrassment, though he didn't hear what was said.

"So then, off to the pool!" Sharpay dramatically threw out her hand in front of her, beckoning the others to follow.

* * *

When unsure of what to do, just call in our favorite Drama Queen! She's got an answer for everything!

At Lava Springs at least...(insert evil foreshadowing laugh)

Next chapter the group by the pool, dealing with Gabriella, much more Shaylorish scenes, and Sharpay trying to patch up her brother's relationship.

And maybe golfing if we can get to it, which we probably will.

But we couldn't have Troy drama and Gabriella drama in the same chapter. Yet.

(XD I'm sorry, I've just got so much passion for this story, and I'm so excited to write the next couple of chapters...especially instead of doing my hw...which i should get to now at 3 in the morning...)

Don't forget to review! I want to hear the reactions to Troy...Thank you!


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